Eastern Conference Power Rankings: Cavs leap after Mitchell trade
Eastern Conference Power Rankings: Rebuilding Squads
13. Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers finally decided not to settle for mediocre, flipping veterans for draft picks and a young stud in Tyrese Haliburton. The problem is that Haliburton is too good already for the Pacers to be truly abysmal, as the best path to the bottom of the standings is terrible point guard play. Myles Turner and Buddy Hield will help prop up their record; if one or both of them are moved Indiana could promptly tumble to the bottom of this list. It will help their rebuilding efforts if Haliburton develops a case of “general maintenance” or some such.
14. Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic have a lot of talented young players, but they are mostly very young. Rookie Paolo Banchero and second-year forward Franz Wagner look like a pairing to shake the conference in four or five years, but this year the growing pains will be significant. There is hope that the answers at guard are already on the roster, but if not this team will likely be bad enough to make a run at Scoot Henderson or Nick Smith in the 2023 NBA Draft.
15. Detroit Pistons
Cade Cunningham looks like he will be really good. Saddiq Bey is a solid rotation player and perhaps a future starter. Otherwise, this team is dealing with bench guys and a pair of young rookies in Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren who will need a lot of time to develop. They could follow through as the surprise team many think they will be, but this group looks like it is a year away from that leap.
Next. Now the Cavs absolutely have to trade away Caris LeVert. dark
There you have it: 15 teams, 15 spots. We know that Milwaukee and Boston will be at the top and Orlando at the bottom, but all of the teams in the middle have a wide variety of landing spots. This will be an exciting season, and the Cavs have a lot to prove and a lot to show the league.